Alexander Zhukov

MOSCOW, April 02, /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov has become the head of the evaluation commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that will choose the capital of the Olympic Winter Games in 2022.

On April 1, IOC President Thomas Bach named representatives of the National Olympic Committees included in the IOC evaluation commission in 2014. Their number increased by 23 percent from last year.

Another Russian representative, Alexander Popov, heads the coordination commission for the second Summer Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing, China, in August 2014. He is also a member of the coordination commission for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, is an expert of the coordination commission for the next Olympic Winter Games to be held in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea, in 2018.

As head of the IOC evaluation commission, Zhukov will have a lot of hard work to do to select the three best cities seeking to host the Olympic Games in 2022, Russian Olympic Committee Honorary President Vitaly Smirnov said.

“Alexander Zhukov and other members of the evaluation commission will have to visit the cities that wish to host Winter Olympic Games. This is very serious work,” Smirnov said.

The city to host the 2022 Olympics will be announced at an IOC session in Kuala Lumpur in 2015.